Call for repeal of India’s anti-conversion laws

Aug 02, 2024

NEW DELHI: A delegation of Christian leaders has urged India’s federal government to ask 11 states to repeal the sweeping anti-conversion laws, which they say target Christians.

“The anti-conversion law has been weaponised to target religious minorities,” an eight-member delegation from the United Christian Forum (UCF) told federal minority affairs minister, Kiren Rijiju.

The delegation met the minister in his office on July 20 and asked him to “issue an advisory to the state governments to repeal the anti-conversion law.”

Stringent laws that criminalise conversion have been enacted in 11 states, most of them ruled by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Christian forum monitors anti-Christian violence in the country and its delegation presented a memorandum to the minister highlighting the rising persecution against Christians.

“The minister agreed to look into our grievances,” said A C Michael, a delegation member.

Michael said on July 22 that they would discuss the issue further with the federal government and the provincial states concerned.

The memorandum has the details of persecution, including murder, false cases, social boycotts, and denial of burial grounds.

There were 727 incidents of violence against Christians in 2023, the memorandum said, and termed them “as a disturbing trend.”

In the current year till June-end, “a staggering 361 incidents of targeted attacks” against Christians were reported, it said.

The central Indian state of Chhattisgarh tops the list with 96 incidents, followed by northern Uttar Pradesh, which has 92 cases. Both the states are ruled by the BJP and have the anti-conversion law in force, which bans religious conversion by using force or allurement.

“The primary reason for these attacks “was the false allegations of fraudulent [religious] conversions,” the memorandum noted.

The memorandum said that “police collude with the right-wing groups” to target Christians, who make up a mere 2.3 per cent of India’s 1.4 billion people.

The delegation also told the minister that Christians were mercilessly beaten to death for their faith, even when the Indian constitution guarantees religious freedom.

On July 12, a four-member delegation led by Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, called on Modi and expressed concerns over the increasing hostility Christians face.

It was the Church leaders’ first meeting with Modi, a month after he was elected to power for the third consecutive term. The leaders wanted Modi’s intervention to stop the atrocities against Christians.

Cases filed by Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore and others are pending in the Supreme Court of India, which complained of a link between the anti-conversion law and the increasing attacks against Christians.

During a hearing on May 16 over the anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court noted that “some parts [of the law] may seem to be violative of the fundamental right to religion. --ucanews.com